Three Deaths
by Out of Options
Summary: Sunny has debts to reply and only one way to do it. Based mid-season 3. Rated M for adult themes.
1. Chapter 1

This has been buzzing round in my head since I started watching Series 3. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Chapter 1

Sunny had never seen a wall move before.

He'd seen warriors dance through a forest canopy like butterflies on the breeze. He'd seen people's eyes turn black when their killing gift came upon them. He'd even seen a group of blinded cannibals living mole-like underground.

All this, but he had never once seen a wall move.

Judging from the panic on his usually slightly bemused face, Bajie clearly had and he didn't seem to like the memory one tiny little bit.

'Get to higher ground', the man bellowed. 'We need to get to higher ground!' Dumping his pack he began to hurtle towards one of the steep valley walls, moving across the parched and cracked ground with a grace that belied his ungainly looking bulk.

Confused Sunny looked back up the valley. What he had thought was a wall was now a cliff filling the whole width of the deep valley, its diamond bright surface glittering under the fierce sun. It was three times his height – at least – and it carried on its top what looked like shrubs, even whole trees. The sound of thunder preceded it far noisier and overwhelming that that which had accompanied the earlier rain.

'Sunny, shift your arse man. Or stay there and die. Your choice'. Bajie had already covered significant distance up the valley wall and his voice was hard to hear over growing noise. Still, despite the strain, he was back to his sardonic self.

Checking the straps on his son's carrying pack and spinning round like a dancer Sunny began to chase after Bajie. The two men and the child made it almost to safety before the water hit.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She had never had a name or if she had she had never been told it. She had tried a few on over the years: rock, insect, blue. But all of these names had a thing of their own and she was none of them so none of them had stuck to her. If there had been anyone around to talk to she might have been able to choose something even if it was nothing more than 'Woman Who Is Not You' but there wasn't so eventually she gave up trying.

Almost no one came this far into the Badlands. The land was hostile pure and simple. Parched landscapes giving way to scrublands and, occasionally, an oasis surrounded by stunted, wind blasted trees before fading back into arid desert. But if the land was harsh and dangerous those that made their home there were even more so. You did not live in the Badlands so much as repeatedly fail to die.

It must have been eighteen months since she had last seen another person, she thought. Or possibly eighteen years. It was hard to tell this far out. It didn't really matter anyway. They hadn't blundered into any of her pit traps or snares. Nor had they found her little dwelling place, disguised as it was by bushes and boulders. Out here she had always been as safe from life as she had been from death but that was then and this was now.

Since nothing really happened in her part of the Badlands from one year to the next she had become alert to every little change in its temperament. Today the sky was angry for as far as the eye could see. The clouds were pushing and shoving, talking in raised voices, and drawing sparks from one another. The air hummed and her sun-baked hair began to float around her head like a dandelion clock. Interesting, she thought, gently touching the spiky tips. This is the most interesting thing that has happened to me since the day I found Yip. Or perhaps the time when I found the stone with the hole in it.

Yip was calling into the sky, challenging the clouds to a fight. They took him at his word and sent down a spark to punish him. It missed but then the rain came and this made him even madder. He gambolled about throwing up muddy splashes and getting sodden through, snatching at mouthfuls of raindrops with his lips curled back.

'Stupid old dog', she muttered. Then she realised that she too was still out in the rain and mud and her skin and rags were soaking up water a damn sight better than the parched earth. 'Stupid old woman'.

The torrential rain lasted an hour or so and then, as soon as it had come, it had gone. Then the wave came and when it was gone there were bodies in her valley.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Bajie had made it slightly further up the valley wall than Sunny when the wave struck but still not far enough. It could never have been far enough not with the speed the water was moving although he had hoped for a miracle somewhere along the way. In the last few moments before it struck he had taken his sash belt and tied himself to an old tree root. He could only hope that this would be sufficient. He didn't want to think what would happen if he was washed away or if he met another bit of tree travelling at speed. Sunny was still some way behind him. Urging his companion on, he reached out to help the other man up. He had just managed to fasten his hand around Sunny's sword belt when the world hit him in the face.

What kind of world was it when an honest (OK - fairly honest) defrocked monk and a baby could drown despite being 25 foot up a barren bluff in the middle of a desert? Sunny was a former Clipper with hundreds of kills to his name so him dying was probably fair enough - although Bajie didn't want to be the one to tell him so – but why bring a baby into it, or a nice friendly chap like him? He held on grimly for as long as he could with the water thundering around him. Then felt himself being tumbled away.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

She prodded the first body with a stick then waited to see what would happen. She was almost disappointed when it moved. A man that fat would have kept her in meat and lamp oil for a month. She rolled him on to his side and prodded him in his prodigious gut to get the water out – what a waste of liquid in a desert!

Grumbling to herself she moved to the next muddy lump. This one wasn't breathing and neither was the small bear cub on its back. She picked up the creature first unravelling its paws from the man's clothing. She had seen a bear dancing when she was a child and had always wanted her own. It would be company for Yip when she was gone. She was disappointed to see that it had lost its claws; no good for hunting that; no help to an old dog who was all but toothless. She was even more disappointed when she discovered that its fur was detachable. Sighing she realised that it was just a little boy wrapped tight in the skin of a black cat with mud covering his dainty features. She wiped his face with a damp rag. Under the dirt he was beautiful. Perfect. Boring. Nevertheless she lent him her breath for a few heartbeats and it squalled. She winced at the noise. A bear would have been better than a baby; quieter.

Finally she turned to the other man. He was harder to bring back from the edge. He'd been hit in the head by a rock, or a branch, or possibly by the floor and he was not just half drowned but comatose as well. She got him breathing and then rigged up a temporary shelter for them all using materials dumped on the ground by the departing water. Nothing she could do now but watch over them and give water and food to whoever was still breathing in the morning. She amused herself by rifling through what was left of their possessions and stealing anything useful.

* * *

All of them lived - even the bear cub that wasn't. She was surprised and a little bit proud. Yip raced around the small encampment like a puppy, thoroughly over excited by the mass of strangers and all the new smells in his little world. The fat man woke first, belly grumbling at the enticing smells coming from her cook pot. He groaned and swore then sat bolt upright.

'Sunny?'

'Shush', she hissed. 'Not so loud. You'll wake the screamer.' She gestured to the baby she was holding awkwardly on her knees. 'The other one is still sleeping. Take this thing and I'll feed you'. She held the child out for him to take.

Bajie did as he was told, pleased to see that the child was safe and that his companion was still breathing even if their rescuer looked and smelt like week old carrion. He took the bowl she handed him greedily and began to slurp at the contents. Even the company couldn't suppress his appetite. Then he stopped, eyes narrowing. 'What meat is this?' He asked suspiciously.

'Rat, you ungrateful pig'. The woman growled back.

'I like rat', he said unfazed by her hostility and downed the rest of the bowl in a few large mouthfuls.

'Any fool can see that', she grumbled half under her breath.

The baby roused next and its hunger was also sated with some of the stew. The woman chewed up small portions and then spat them in to the child's mouth as she had done for Yip when he was a pup. Bajie screwed up his face in disgust but he couldn't deny that it kept the child mercifully quiet. Sunny slept on, breathing steady but shallow. In the end Bajie had been so concerned that he had expended a little of his chi to help rouse the man out of his coma. Once conscious, Sunny had taken in the scene calmly and nodded his thanks to their rescuer before fussing over little Henry.

'What meat is this?' He asked equally calmly when Bajie handed him a bowl of the stew.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It took nearly the whole day for the three of them to climb from the valley floor to the plateau above. The woman carried the baby in a sling woven from grass and the scraps of his original papoose, so that she could keep both hands free for scrambling up the bluff. But where the woman moved like a mountain goat, Bajie and Sunny followed on legs as weak and unreliable as those of a day old lamb. They reached the top, barely, and crawled away from the edge to somewhere which felt a little safer. The sun was burning hot and they were glad that she had insisted that they smeared their skin with mud from the valley floor though it was flaking from them badly now.

'We can rest for 200 heartbeats', the woman said. 'But then we need to get you under cover. Your clothes are rags and you'll burn if you stay out here much longer.' Groaning they did as she instructed.

* * *

Reaching the coolness of the cave was a blessed relief. The woman doled out fresh water and biltong, before passing the remains of the stew to Sunny for baby. She didn't seem inclined to talk. Feeling awkward the ex-monk felt that he had to make introductions - in order to find out who she was if nothing else.

'I'm Bajie', he said bobbing his head in a bow. 'Gambler, lover, sometime miner. You may have heard of me.' The woman looked at him stonily. Nervously he continued. 'The man over there is Sunny – you can see by his tattoos what he used to do. In his arms is his young son, Henry. Can I ask your name?'

'No name', she replied, her voice scratchy with overuse.

Bajie looked momentarily nonplussed but he went with it. 'Well, 'No Name', we're very grateful that you found us. Now if you wouldn't mind pointing us in the direction of the nearest castle in the middle of a lake we'll leave you to your solitude.'

'No.'

'What do you mean 'no'?'

'I saved your lives - you, him, and the wee scrap. You owe me. Not the other way around.' She nodded in Sunny's direction. 'The Clipper knows.'

Bajie rolled his eyes. 'It's not some tedious matter of honour is it? I can't be doing with that nonsense.'

'Three lives, three deaths', Sunny said slowly meeting the woman's eyes.

Solemnly she nodded. 'Three lives, three deaths, three days. In return I will give you what you need.'

It took nearly the whole day for the three of them to climb from the valley floor to the plateau above. The woman carried the baby in a sling woven from grass and the scraps of his original papoose, so that she could keep both hands free for scrambling up the bluff. But where the woman moved like a mountain goat, Bajie and Sunny followed on legs as weak and unreliable as those of a day old lamb. They reached the top, barely, and crawled away from the edge to somewhere which felt a little safer. The sun was burning hot and they were glad that she had insisted that they smeared their skin with mud from the valley floor though it was flaking from them badly now.

'We can rest for 200 heartbeats', the woman said. 'But then we need to get you under cover. Your clothes are rags and you'll burn if you stay out here much longer.' Groaning they did as she instructed.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Bajie was rudely awoken by a swift kick in the ribs.

'Move fool', she muttered, dumping a bowl of what looked like dog vomit at his side. 'There's work to be done.' The wound in her breast was particularly painful today and it made her more than usually testy.

Groaning, Bajie cast his eye towards the entrance of the cave where Sunny was working through his forms. Over achieving bastard! Little Henry was propped up against Yip's side watching his father's leaps and whirls with every sign of enjoyment, one little fist gripping the dog's rough fur the other firmly lodged in his mouth. The dog by contrast was paying the former Clippers acrobatics no attention at all. If it had not been for gentle rise and fall of the elderly beast's chest, Bajie would have assumed that it was dead. Bajie saw Sunny pick up his sword. Eyes rolling he realised that this could take a while. He turned to the dog vomit, sniffed, found it wasn't as bad as it looked and began to wolf it down. Sadly for his belly it didn't take long.

The woman huffed at him when she saw that he was finished. She was pleased, although she wouldn't tell him. For all it was a desert her plateau and her valley were surprisingly productive and it wasn't like her and Yip had any other calls on their time. She had years' worth of food buried deep under the sand at the back of her cave where it kept cool all year. She couldn't remember having guests before (other than Yip) but there was something in her, some in-born pride, which meant that she would not let anyone in her care – human or animal starve. She was glad that she hadn't had to feed the fat man for all these years though. That would have been beyond her.

Sunny had finished his forms. Happy with his physical condition following the stresses of being caught up in a tidal wave, and sure of the keenness of his blade, he approached the woman to whom he owed three deaths.

'I am ready for your orders, Lady Nameless', he said, formally.

She goggled at him for a moment.

'Please tell me who you would like me to kill today', he pressed.

'Out the back', she murmured. 'We'll need her for dinner.'

'I'm sorry my lady – what do you mean?' Sunny was all confusion.

'My last hen, you damn fool man. She's not laid in weeks. Kill the bloody thing and we can eat fresh meat for a couple of days.'

Sunny stiffened. He was ashamed of his past as a hired killer but his honour was important to him. Using his skills to kill a chicken was bad enough but doing so in return for a life saved was deeply shaming. Bajie, thinking of his belly, eyed at him coldly. Dropping his head, Sunny nodded obediently and moved to comply.

Out the back he found a single Plymouth Rock hen pecking at insects in the rough ground near the cave. Instead of being frightened of him the bird had looked up at him expectantly. It's only experience of humans had been the woman who had fed and watered it since its hatching. It looked to two-leggers for sustenance and security not realising that the woman that fed it had been responsible for the disappearance of all its hen siblings and their unborn children nor that this new two-legger offered her the same dismal end.

A few moments later Sunny returned with the dead bird. He passed the corpse formally to the woman who acknowledged the completion of his first task with a terse nod. She took the small body to a nearby hillock and sat to pluck the feathers. Yip roused finally and waited patiently as she worked. However, once the bird was free of its plumage the woman disembowelled it and then Yip pounced. The sounds he made devouring the bird's viscera was revolting. Still, she reasoned, at least it left her free to joint the bird and set it to boil for soup.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

They ate well that night. In addition to the meat from the scrawny old hen, the woman had almost denuded her scrubby garden to provide greens for the soup. The mere thought of all work it must have taken to cart the water from the valley floor to the plateau in order to sustain the life of the growing things in the small vegetable plot made Bajie feel weak. It made the gruelling and austere life he'd lived in the monastery seem like a weekend spent as a Baron's honoured guest. Still, it wasn't as if the mad old cow had anything else to do all day.

After dinner they sat staring in to the fire, each lost in their own thoughts. Conversation died as soon as it started. Even Bajie, who was never usually lost for words, felt the good humour leaking out of him. They went to bed early.

* * *

The next morning Bajie was awoken by the sound of Sunny chopping wood. Groaning he rolled over and looked out through the entrance of the cave. The light was blinding. In the distance he could see the woman sat on the edge of the steep scree slope leading down into the valley. Her demented old dog was lying at her side, head resting in her lap. He rose and dressed quickly. Then, grabbing a bowl of leftovers, he went to join his friend.

'I get tired just watching you', he said as he wolfed down his breakfast. 'Do you have to be so offensively helpful?'

Sunny looked at him sourly and then lined up the next log.

'What do you think the old lunatic will want you to kill today? She's got bugger all left. Maybe she'll ask you to kill some greens from the veg patch.'

Sunny allowed the head of the half blunt old axe to rest on the ground. He looked over his shoulder to where the woman sat looking out over the Badlands. 'I already know my next task.'

Bajie shivered.

* * *

She remembered the day that Yip had come into her life - that tiny, fluffy, striving ball of life. She had been laying snares for weeks and finding half eaten kills. She had become frustrated, hungry. Then she had finally found the source of the problem – a feral bitch, teats hanging low with the remnants of milk flow – caught in one of her traps. The creature was frantic with pain and thirst. She felt a moments regret as she cut its throat but life was hard out here and she had lost too much to it to be generous. If the situation had been reversed it would have been her who was bleeding her life away on the hungry ground. As it was she lived and the dog died. But there was something in the bitch's demeanour which gave her pause. A female with distended teats prepared to attack a series of traps clearly set by a human had only one thought in her mind – her litter of pups.

She was lonely. Apart from short periods of time – most of which she had no desire to recall to mind - she had been on her own since she'd been dumped in the Badlands as a child. She had never had a child of her own – never would. But she recognised the struggle of the lone mother, the desperate measures she had gone to in order to rear her brood. Without her the pups would have no chance. She felt a moment's grief. Perhaps she should seek out the litter. She had been alone for as long as she could remember; puppies would be just the thing.

As it was, only one pup remained. Despite extreme hunger and thirst, he had been a game little thing. He had wriggled in her grip like a skinny, fury maggot yipping in greeting, before snuffling at the smell of his mother on the woman's hands and body. Comforted by her warmth and the lingering familiar scent he had eagerly stuffed his face in to a bowl of her mixed meat stew and then fallen asleep in her arms. She had been instantly smitten.

* * *

'You're going to kill the woman?' Bajie asked, mildly disapproving. 'If she's dead how will we get the information we need?'

Without meeting his eyes, Sunny picked up his blade from where he had carefully placed it and walked over to where the woman sat. Sunny laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

'Let it be now', he said softly.

The woman looked up at him, eyes filling with tears. Her work roughened hands smoothed the dog's grizzled fur and then she bent down and kissed the top of its shaggy head. Relaxed and trusting the animal barely reacted as Sunny's sharp blade parted the skin at its throat. Its body convulsed in protest at the approaching darkness but within a few heartbeats it was still.

As the woman keened, Sunny walked back to the entrance of the cave and calmly resumed chopping wood.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

They made a sorry group that night. There was no conversation. The woman went to bed early. Bajie, Sunny, and Henry finished the chicken soup.

The next morning Bajie had risen early and helped the woman prepare Yip's body for cremation - she would not leave him for the carrion birds. The reason for Sunny's obsession with chopping wood was now clear. As they worked, long supressed memories of his time as a monk enabled Bajie to assume an attitude of reverence which was quite at odds with his usual debauched and derisive demeanour but the woman had barely acknowledged his presence. After they had finished she had wandered off without a word or a backwards glance and a quiet and depressed Bajie had gone to join Sunny and Henry. The two men were grateful for the child's cheerful personality.

Now the woman sat alone back on the edge of the bluff, lost in her memories. The body of her only friend lay on the ground next to her, beginning to bloat in the hot weather. She saw flashes from her dimly remembered childhood: occasionally snippets of people and events but mostly scents and sounds. She remembered the word 'Doll' in particular. She was fairly certain that her mother had been one. She wasn't sure what that was but it had smelt nice. There had been food too, and clothes that felt like warm clouds on her skin. The next thing she remembered was the slave pens where she had been shut up with the other Cogs. That had not smelt nice. In fact it had smelt worse than she did now even with the souring ulcer on her breast. She couldn't remember how she had come to move from Doll house to Cog pen or even what had brought her to the Badlands; it probably didn't matter now.

Petting Yip's dense fur, cold now that the spark that had animated him for so long had died, she sat looking down the scree into her valley. The recent rains had woken long dormant plants and almost overnight flowers had begun to bloom in riotous profusion. The air was thick with the scent of flowers, the humming of nectar drunk insects, and the joyous calls of feeding birds. Even the sun and endless sky seemed to throb with life. She had seldom witnessed such beauty. It wouldn't last but nothing ever did.

She heard soft footfalls behind her. She did not need to turn to know who it was. The Clipper was waiting for his final assignment.

'Lady Nameless.' Sunny said formally.

Lady Nameless, she thought. All this time and she had finally found a name that suited her.

'Everything you need is in a box in the hen coop', she replied. 'I checked it last night. The maps and all are still legible. I've marked where I think we are.'

'Thank you', Sunny replied.

The woman nodded to herself. 'And tell that fat friend of yours that there are plenty of supplies buried in the sand at the back of the cave. More than you can carry. More than even he can eat.'

'Thank you', Sunny said again. There was no more to say. He crouched down and waited with perfect patience for her to indicate that he should complete the charge she had laid on him. Eventually he saw a sense of peace, of lightness, creep over her as if her spirit was already beginning to slip her skin.

'You know what to do', she rasped. Back to him, she lifted her head to the sun and filled her lungs with the scent of flowers. Sunny's blade was so sharp that it parted the skin of her throat almost without pain. His strong arms about her as she bled out were as comforting as a mother's. For a moment she heard a woman's gentle voice calling to her, followed by a puppy's excited yip. In her mind's eye, Lady Nameless smiled.


End file.
